Super Slipper, in its third incarnation, sees five of Taiwan’s hottest rock groups play a marathon concert this weekend at the Taipei Arena

Mayday.

Photo credit: B’in Music

Super Slipper Part 3 (「超犀利趴-團團團團團」演唱會) will play Taipei Arena (台北小巨蛋) on August 25 and 26. The five headlining bands include Luantan A-hsiang (亂彈阿翔), The Chairman (董事長), Backquarter (四分衛), Tolaku (脫拉庫) and the hugely popular Mayday (五月天).

“[These] five bands jumpstarted Taiwan’s band era,” said Chen Yung-chih (陳勇志), chairman of B’in Music (相信音樂), which organized the event.

Back in 2000, the Golden Melody Awards (金曲獎), billed as the most important award in the Chinese-language music world, had yet to define Best Band as its own separate category. In that year, the five above-mentioned bands were nominated in the Best Duo category, which Luantan A-hsiang won. While accepting the award, the group’s vocalist, A-hsiang, proclaimed, “the era of bands has arrived!”

A-hsiang’s words were a wake-up call for Golden Melody organizers, who went on to add a Best Band category the following year; Mayday took the top honor.

Fast-forward to 2010 and the five bands came together for the first incarnation of Super Slipper at the Taipei Arena. The next year, they played to 50,000 jubilant fans at the Kaohsiung World Games Stadium.

Chen said that although most of the musicians have married and grown a little older, they are still ready to rock.

“They haven’t mellowed but rather aged into mature men who believe in rock,” Chen said

Mayday has become the most commercially successful rock band in Taiwan. The group has released eight albums and won the Best Band award four times at the Golden Melody Awards, which it also swept this year with six trophies for the album Nowhere (諾亞方舟).

A-hsiang, the frontman of Luantan A-hsiang, has gone on to a successful solo career by winning the Best Movie Theme Song award with Perfect Landing (完美落地) in 2011, and the Best Mandarin Male Singer award with the album Me in Place of You (把我換成你) at Golden Melody this year.